Stein campaign makes push for matching funds

Dr. Jill Stein’s Green Party presidential campaign is making a push to qualify for federal matching funds. The campaign says it is “committed to running a clean money campaign and is refusing donations from corporate lobbyists or officers of for-profit corporations.”

To qualify, Stein must raise at least $5,000 in qualified contributions in at least 20 states. As of early September, the campaign had crossed that threshold in five states (California, Florida, Massachusetts, New York, and Washington) and was more than halfway to the threshold in eight others.

The campaign hopes to qualify “a year ahead of the election since this would be a highly visible statement that a serious independent left candidate is heading for the ballot in November 2016.” It hopes to qualify in 22 states before submitting its application to the Federal Election Commission “just for safety if some donations are rejected.”

Veteran Green Party activist Howie Hawkins said last week, “The Green Party and its leading presidential candidate, Jill Stein, are best positioned to secure state ballot lines across the country to provide a credible alternative.” He said that by mid-March 2016, “in all likelihood, Bernie Sanders’s campaign will have reached the end of its rope. Sanders’s supporters will then need a Plan B. If Jill Stein is on enough ballots at that time to be considered a credible alternative, the question for progressives will then be, Hillary or Jill?”